Kyle Busch - Turning The Thing Around

Kyle Busch loves how the 2009 NASCAR season has started. Busch drove his Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota across the finish line first in the second Gatorade Duel at Daytona International Speedway Thursday, a much needed win.

"It felt really good," Busch said. "This whole team has really worked hard. This whole offseason everybody has. From where we ended last year, it felt like it was pretty cool to start off the season this way."

Where Busch ended last year was in free fall. After winning 7 Sprint Cup races before the Chase began, Busch was in great position to capture his first Spring Cup championship leading the points race heading into the Chase. Instead the number 18 Toyota broke down and Busch ended up finishing 34th in a 43 car field. After that Busch and his JGR team couldn't recover.

"We left the championship out there, that's for sure." Busch said. "(The) car fell apart in the last 10 races, and you can't have that. We made the Chase but we wanted to run well in the Chase, contend and be there for the championship, which we weren't able to do at the end of the year."

Busch doesn't feel 2008 was a failure and believes his #18 JGR Toyota can contend for the championship this season. I would say with the Duel win, he's off to a great start.

There is a tendency to beat yourself up when things didn't go your way. 2008 is history for Kyle Busch, time to focus on 2009. Part of the maturing of Busch is that he is realizing this and he and the team are keeping their expectations more realistic.

"I'm not as optimistic as I was... The season didn't end on a note that we really wanted it to." Busch said. "Losing isn't fun but you have to learn to deal wit it better. You've got to learn that every day isn't your day but you can make the most of losing sometimes and try to turn it around and win the next week."

Thursday the sweet taste of victory returned to Kyle Busch. After getting his butt kicked in the 2008 Chase it looks as if Kyle Busch is ready to kick butt this NASCAR season.

Photo Courtesy: Geoff Burke/Getty Images

Here's the finish of the 2nd Gatorade Dual at Daytona (Thanks Speed)